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High school teachers and university lecturers face a new lazy student threat: free artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT that will write an essay for you in seconds.
Now, ChatGPT maker OpenAI has released a free tool called AI Text Classifier that promises some relief.
You paste in a minimum 1000 characters (about 250 words), and it will tell you if the text is written by an AI or a human - or, more specifically, it will label a document as very unlikely, unlikely, unclear if it is, possibly, or likely AI-generated.
I gave it a quick test by asking ChatGPT to “Write a 1200 word essay answering the question: Was it right for the New Zealand Government to float the dollar in 1985?”
In one minute and 17 seconds, ChatGPT duly typed an essay (see foot of article).
I copied that essay into Classifier.
Its response: It was “unclear” if it was written by an AI.
That’s not a great performance from OpenAI. Both because the text was generated by an OpenAI tool, and it was an amazingly wooden essay.
Leaving aside ChatGPT wrote 527 words when I asked for 1200, its effort was clunky, mechanical and shallow - mirroring the other times I’ve used ChatGPT.
It’s always superficially impressive to see ChatGPT immediately start to type a response in real-time, and the sentences unfurling down your screen.
But the more you look, the less it wows.
Here, the opening paragraph promised “an evaluation of its effects on the New Zealand economy”, but the body of the essay did not actually answer that question.
In fact, although ChatGPT has been fed more than 45 terabytes of data (albeit only running up to the end of 2021), the essay contains no detail about NZ’s floating of the dollar whatsoever. It’s just a generic gob of text about floating a currency, with a few “New Zealands” chucked in.
It poses queries (”Another argument against floating the New Zealand dollar was that it would lead to higher inflation”) then fails to address them.
I’d give it a D grade.
ChatGPT fans will retort that I should have trained it by feeding in various examples of good essays on the topic. And then I could have rewritten lots of it to smooth over the clunkiness, add citations and localise the themes. But that would be a multi-hour process that’s starting to look a lot like traditional schoolwork.
Others have found similarly dodgy results when road-testing Classifier.
OpenAI says it’s early days for new tool, and that it should “not be used as a primary decision-making tool”. That’s one thing I can confirm.
MindLab and academyEX founder Frances Valintine points says the whole essay-and-exam scare diversion. She says teachers should not fear ChatGPT, but “lean in”, embracing its potential to enhance research.
She also points out that you don’t need Classifier or any other third-party high-tech tool to spot if an essay is written by ChatGPT. The AI’s inability to add footnotes or citations is a dead giveaway.
Valintine speculates the limitation stems from the fact that ChatGPT synthesises its output from multiple sources, so it could prove a longstanding drawback - or, indeed, safeguard for suspicious teachers (we’ll have more from Valintine shortly on ChatGPT’s potential for coding, search, chatbots, e-commerce other areas).
Anyhow, here’s the ChatGPT effort classified as “unclear”:
The floating of the New Zealand dollar in 1985 was a controversial and significant economic decision made by the government of New Zealand. The question of whether it was the right decision is still a matter of debate among economists and political experts. In this essay, the arguments for and against floating the New Zealand dollar will be examined, along with an evaluation of its effects on the New Zealand economy.
The primary argument in favor of floating the New Zealand dollar was that it would provide greater flexibility in monetary policy and allow the country to respond more effectively to economic shocks. Prior to 1985, the New Zealand dollar was pegged to a fixed exchange rate with the U.S. dollar. This meant that the government was limited in its ability to use monetary policy to control inflation and stabilize the economy. By floating the dollar, the government was able to more easily manipulate interest rates and other monetary policy tools to achieve its economic goals.
Additionally, floating the New Zealand dollar made it easier for the country to participate in international trade and investment. This was because the fixed exchange rate system often resulted in large imbalances between the value of the New Zealand dollar and other currencies, making it difficult for the country to engage in international economic activities. With a floating exchange rate, the value of the New Zealand dollar was determined by market forces, making it easier for the country to trade and invest with other nations.
On the other hand, there were also several arguments against floating the New Zealand dollar. One of the main concerns was that it would increase the risk of currency instability and unpredictability. Since the value of the New Zealand dollar was no longer pegged to a fixed exchange rate, it was subject to large fluctuations in value, making it difficult for businesses and consumers to plan for the future. This increased risk and unpredictability could harm the economy by discouraging investment and slowing economic growth.
Another argument against floating the New Zealand dollar was that it would lead to higher inflation. The flexibility in monetary policy that came with a floating exchange rate could be used to increase the money supply and stimulate the economy. However, this could also lead to higher inflation if the government was not careful in controlling the money supply. This could result in a decrease in the value of the New Zealand dollar and hurt the country’s ability to participate in international trade and investment.
In conclusion, while floating the New Zealand dollar had both positive and negative effects on the New Zealand economy, it is difficult to definitively say whether it was the right decision or not. On one hand, the floating exchange rate provided greater flexibility in monetary policy and made it easier for the country to participate in international trade and investment. On the other hand, it also increased the risk of currency instability and unpredictability, and could lead to higher inflation. Ultimately, the decision to float the New Zealand dollar was a complex one that involved weighing the benefits and risks of a floating exchange rate system.
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